U.S. MILITARY BEGINS TRAINING COLOMBIANS

Florencia, Colombia — U.S. Special Forces trainers quietly arrived in
Colombia last week and have begun preparing this country's second
anti-narcotics military battalion, a key element in the $1.3-billion
American anti-drug aid package for this nation, U.S. and Colombian sources
confirmed.

Colombian soldiers with rifles drawn surrounded both the trainers and the
U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane that brought them into this southern
town about two hours by highway from guerrilla-held territory. The 83
trainers then were transported to Larandia, a military base 40 miles from
here, according to a Colombian Armed Forces spokeswoman.

The battalion is scheduled to be ready for action by Christmas, said a U.S.
Embassy official in the capital, Bogota. A 12-man brigade headquarters
command to oversee the military anti-narcotics activity will begin training
in September, he said.

The 780 soldiers in the new battalion will join the first U.S.-trained
anti-drug battalion, which began functioning on Dec. 15, 1999, to provide
support for police anti-narcotics operations. Police are responsible for
drug enforcement in this country, which produces about three-fourths of the
world's cocaine and an increasing share of the heroin consumed in the United
States.

However, police increasingly have come under attack from armed groups
guarding drug crops. Colombian and U.S. narcotics and national security
experts have said that those guards are often guerrillas or right-wing
paramilitary units, which the army is responsible for fighting.

For that reason, the army is scheduled to receive $521 million in U.S. aid
for training and equipment for the anti-narcotics battalions. President
Clinton signed the final directive to release the aid Friday, when he also
announced he will visit Colombia for the first time Aug. 30.

"The cornerstone of our Colombia Initiative, this supplemental
(appropriation) includes a tenfold increase in U.S. funds to promote good
government, judicial reform, human rights protection and economic
development in Colombia," Clinton noted in a statement released in
Washington. "It will help Colombia strengthen its democracy while helping
the government staunch the flow of drugs to our shores."